Maria Arpa tells the “Guardian” about the work she has been completing in Dartmoor Prison

February 13, 2018

“At Dartmoor prison, inmates are being trained in mediation – a scheme experts hope will tackle the nationwide surge in violence”

Last year, this category C men’s prison began working with one of Britain’s leading mediators, Maria Arpa.

“Since training began at Dartmoor in February 2017, 19 prisoners have qualified as mediators. Among them is John, an elderly man in a pinstripe shirt who has now conducted six real-life mediations within the prison. While some prisoners are initially cynical about the process, he says, he has marvelled at the way many open up”

“My first was with a young man who’d been in trouble his whole life,” John says. “He’d been kicking off on the wing. The process involves stopping every now and then to summarise what they’ve said, but I couldn’t stop him talking about how he saw himself as the black sheep of the family. He came to tears.” Guardian Post read more here ..

Mediation is increasingly commonplace in both family and workplace disputes. Arpa, however, specialises in engaging the violent: over the past decade, her charity, The Centre for Peaceful Solutions, has resolved gangland disputes and trained inmates and staff across six prisons in the Dialogue Road Map – her blueprint for non-violent communication.